HPB-SD(ed.1) v.2 p.1 st.7 sl.24

The Secret Doctrine

The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy

by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

Verbatim first edition

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volume 2 Anthropogenesis, part 1 Anthropogenesis, stanza 7 From the Semi-Divine Down to the First Human Races, sloka 24 The higher creators reject in their pride the forms evolved by the “ Sons of Yoga.”

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a suggestive stanza.

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STANZA VII. FROM THE SEMI-DIVINE DOWN TO THE FIRST HUMAN RACES.

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§§ (24) The higher creators reject in their pride the forms evolved by the “ Sons of Yoga.” (25) They will not incarnate in the early “ Egg-born.” . . (26) They select the later androgynes. (27) The first man endowed with mind.

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24. The Sons of Wisdom, the Sons of Night (issued from the body of Brahmâ when it became Night), ready for re-birth, came down. They saw the (intellectually) vile forms of the first third (still senseless Race) (a). “ We can choose,” said the Lords, “ we have wisdom.” Some entered the Chhayas. Some projected a spark. Some deferred till the Fourth (Race). From their own essence they filled (intensified) the Kama (the vehicle of desire). Those who received but a spark remained destitute of (higher) knowledge. The spark burnt low (b). The Third remained mindless. Their Jivas (Monads) were not ready. These were set apart among the Seven (primitive human species). They (became the) narrow-headed. The third were ready. In these shall we dwell, said the Lords of the Flame and of the Dark Wisdom (c).

This Stanza contains, in itself, the whole key to the mysteries of evil, the so-called Fall of the angels, and the many problems that have puzzled the brains of the philosophers from the time that the memory of man began. It solves the secret of the subsequent inequalities of intellectual capacity, of birth or social position, and gives a logical explanation to the incomprehensible Karmic course throughout the æons which followed. The best explanation which can be given, in view of the difficulties of the subject, shall now be attempted.

(a) Up to the Fourth Round, and even to the later part of the Third Race in this Round, Man — if the ever-changing forms that clothed the Monads during the first three Rounds and the first two and a half races of the present one can be given that misleading name — is, so far, only an animal intellectually. It is only in the actual midway Round that he develops in himself entirely the fourth principle as a fit vehicle for the

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fifth. But Manas will be relatively fully developed only in the following Round, when it will have an opportunity of becoming entirely divine until the end of the Rounds. As Christian Schœttgen says in Horæ Hebraicæ, etc., the first terrestrial Adam “ had only the breath of life,” Nephesh, but not the living Soul.

(b) Here the inferior Races, of which there are still some analogues left — as the Australians (now fast dying out) and some African and Oceanic tribes — are meant. “ They were not ready ” signifies that the Karmic development of these Monads had not yet fitted them to occupy the forms of men destined for incarnation in higher intellectual Races. But this is explained later on.

(c) The Zohar speaks of “ Black Fire,” which is Absolute Light-Wisdom. To those who, prompted by old theological prejudice, may say : “ But the Asuras are the rebel Devas, the opponents of the Gods — hence devils, and the spirits of Evil,” it is answered : Esoteric philosophy admits neither good nor evil per se, as existing independently in nature. The cause for both is found, as regards the Kosmos, in the necessity of contraries or contrasts, and with respect to man, in his human nature, his ignorance and passions. There is no devil or the utterly depraved, as there are no Angels absolutely perfect, though there may be spirits of Light and of Darkness ; thus Lucifer — the spirit of Intellectual Enlightenment and Freedom of Thought — is metaphorically the guiding beacon, which helps man to find his way through the rocks and sand-banks of Life, for Lucifer is the Logos in his highest, and the “ Adversary ” in his lowest aspect — both of which are reflected in our Ego. Lactantius, speaking of the Nature of Christ, makes the Logos, the Word, the first-born brother of Satan, the “ first of all creatures.” (Inst. div. Book II., c. viii., “ Qabbalah,” 116.)

The Vishnu Purâna describes these primeval creatures (the Arvaksrota) with crooked digestive canals : They were “ endowed with inward manifestations, but mutually in ignorance about their kind and nature.” The twenty-eight kinds of Badha, or imperfections, do not apply, as Wilson thought, to the animals now known and specified by him, * for these did not exist in those geological periods. This is quite plain in the said work, in which the first created (on this globe) are the “ five-fold immovable creation,” minerals and vegetables ; then come those fabulous animals, Tiryaksrota, (the monsters of the abyss slain by the “ Lords,” see Stanzas II. and III.) ; then the Urdhwasrotas, the happy celestial beings, which feed on ambrosia ; then lastly, the Arvaksrotas, human beings — Brahmâ’s

* See Book I., chap. v., p. 71.

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creators and sub-creators.

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seventh creation so-called. But these “ creations,” including the latter, did not occur on this globe, wherever else they may have taken place. It is not Brahmâ who creates things and men on this Earth, but the chief and Lord of the Prajâpati, the Lords of Being and terrestrial Creation. * Obeying the command of Brahmâ, Daksha (the synthesis, or the aggregate, of the terrestrial creators and progenitors, Pitris included) made superior and inferior (vara and avara) things “ referring to putra ” progeny, and “ bipeds and quadrupeds, and subsequently by his will (the Sons of Will and Yoga) made females,” i.e., separated the androgynes. Here again, we have “ bipeds ” or men, created before the “ quadrupeds ” as in the esoteric teachings. (Vide supra and Stanza XII. as explained.)

Since, in the exoteric accounts, the Asuras are the first beings created from the “ body of night,” while the Pitris issue from that of Twilight ; the “ gods ” being placed by Parâsara (Vishnu Purâna) between the two, and shown to evolve from the “ body of the day,” it is easy to discover a determined purpose to veil the order of creation. Man is the Arvaksrota coming from the “ Body of the Dawn ” ; and elsewhere, man is again referred to, when the creator of the world, Brahmâ, is shown “ creating fierce beings, denominated Bhûtas and eaters of flesh,” or as the text has it, “ fiends frightful from being monkey-coloured and carnivorous.” † Whereas the Rakshasas are generally translated by “ Evil Spirits ” and “ the enemies of the gods,” which identifies them with the Asuras. In the Ramâyana, when Hanuman is reconnoitering the enemy in Lanka, he finds there Rakshasas, some hideous, “ while some were beautiful to look upon,” and, in Vishnu Purâna, there is a direct reference to their becoming the Saviours of “ Humanity,” or of Brahmâ.

The allegory is very ingenious. Great intellect and too much knowledge are a two-edged weapon in life, and instruments for evil as well as for good. When combined with Selfishness, they will make of the whole of Humanity a footstool for the elevation of him who possesses them, and a means for the attainment of his objects ; while, applied to altruistic humanitarian purposes, they may become the means of the salvation of many. At all events, the absence of self-consciousness and intellect will make of man an idiot, a brute in human form. Brahmâ is Mahat — the universal Mind — hence the too-selfish among the Rakshasas showing the desire to become possessed of it all — to “ devour ” Mahat. The allegory is transparent.

At any rate, esoteric philosophy identifies the pre-Brahmanical

* “ Vishnu Purâna,” Book I., chap. xv. of vol. 2.

† Ibid., Book I., chap. v.

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suras, Rudras, * Râkshasas and all the “ Adversaries ” of the Gods in the allegories, with the Egos, which, by incarnating in the still witless man of the Third Race, made him consciously immortal. They are, then, during the cycle of Incarnations, the true dual Logos — the conflicting and two-faced divine Principle in Man. The Commentary that follows, and the next Stanzas may, no doubt, throw more light on this very difficult tenet, but the writer does not feel competent to give it out fully. Of the succession of Races, however, they say : —

“ First come the SELF-EXISTENT on this Earth. They are the ‘ Spiritual Lives ’ projected by the absolute WILL and LAW, at the dawn of every rebirth of the worlds. These LIVES are the divine ‘ Sishta,’ (the seed-Manus, or the Prajâpati and the Pitris).”

From these proceed —

1. The First Race, the “ Self-born,” which are the (astral) shadows of their Progenitors. † The body was devoid of all understanding (mind, intelligence, and will). The inner being (the higher self or Monad), though within the earthly frame, was unconnected with it. The link, the Manas, was not there as yet.

2. From the First (race) emanated the second, called the “ Sweat-born ” ‡ and

* Whom Manu calls “ our paternal grandfathers ” (III., 284). The Rudras are the seven manifestations of Rudra-Siva, “ the destroying god,” and also the grand Yogi and ascetic.

† See § II., §^§ 1, Commentary.

‡ To speak of life as having arisen, and of the human race as having originated, in this absurdly unscientific way, in the face of the modern Pedigrees of Man, is to court instantaneous annihilation. The esoteric doctrine risks the danger, nevertheless, and even goes so far as to ask the impartial reader to compare the above hypothesis (if it is one) with Hæckel’s theory — now fast becoming an axiom with science — which is quoted verbatim : —

“  . . . How did life, the living world of organisms, arise ? And, secondly, the special question : How did the human race originate ? The first of these two inquiries, that as to the first appearance of living beings, can only be decided empirically (! !) by proof of the so-called Archebiosis, or equivocal generation, or the spontaneous production of organisms of the simplest conceivable kind. Such are the Monera (Protogenes, Protamoeba, etc), exceedingly simple microscopic masses of protoplasm without structure or organisation, which take in nutriment and reproduce themselves by division. Such a Moneron as that primordial organism discovered by the renowned English zoologist Huxley, and named Bathybius Hæckelii, appears as a continuous thick protoplasmic covering at the greatest depths of the ocean, between 3,000 and 30,000 feet. It is true that the first appearance of such Monera has not up to the present moment been actually observed ; but there is nothing intrinsically improbable in such an evolution.” (The “ Pedigree of Man,” Aveling’s translation. p. 33.)

The Bathybius protoplasm having recently turned out to be no organic substance at all, there remains little to be said. Nor, after reading this, does one need to consume further time in refuting the further assertion that . . . . “ in that case man also

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to the moneron the creator.

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the “ Boneless.” This is the Second Root-Race, endowed by the preservers (Râkshasas) * and the incarnating gods (Asuras and the Kumâras) with the first primitive and weak spark (the germ of intelligence) . . And from these in turn proceeds : —

3. The Third Root-Race, the “ Two-fold ” (Androgynes). The first Races hereof are shells, till the last is “ inhabited ” (i.e., informed) by the Dhyanis.

The Second Race, as stated above, being also sexless, evolved out of itself, at its beginning, the Third Androgyne Race by an analogous, but already more complicated process. As described in the Commentary, the very earliest of that race were : —

“ The ‘ Sons of Passive Yoga.’ † They issued from the second Manushyas

has beyond a doubt (to the minds of Hæckel and his like) arisen from the lower mammalia, apes and the earlier simian creatures, the still earlier Marsupialia, Amphibia, Pisces, by progressive transformations,” all produced by “ a series of natural forces working blindly, without aim, without design ” (p. 36).

The above-quoted passage bears its criticism on its own face. Science is made to teach that which, up to the present time, “ has never been actually observed.” She is made to deny the phenomenon of an intelligent nature and a vital force independent of form and matter, and to find it more scientific to teach the miraculous performance of “ natural forces working blindly without aim or design.” If so, then we are led to think that the physico-mechanical forces of the brains of certain eminent Scientists are leading them on as blindly to sacrifice logic and common sense on the altar of mutual admiration. Why should the protoplasmic Moneron producing the first living creature through self-division be held as a very scientific hypothesis, and an ethereal pre-human race generating the primeval men in the same fashion be tabooed as unscientific superstition ? Or has materialism obtained a sole monopoly in Science ?

* The Râkshasas, regarded in Indian popular theology as demons, are called the “ Preservers ” beyond the Himalayas. This double and contradictory meaning has its origin in a philosophical allegory, which is variously rendered in the Purânas. It is stated that when Brahmâ created the demons, Yakshas (from Yaksh, to eat) and the Râkshasas, both of which kinds of demons, as soon as born, wished to devour their creator, those among them that called out “ Not so ! oh, let him be saved (preserved)” were named Râkshasas ( Vishnu Purâna Book I. ch. v .). The Bhagavata Purâna (III, 20, 19-21) renders the allegory differently. Brahmâ transformed himself into night (or ignorance) invested with a body, upon which the Yakshas and Râkshasas seized, exclaiming “ Do not spare it ; devour it.” Brahmâ then cried out, “ Do not devour me, spare me.” This has an inner meaning of course. The “ body of Night ” is the darkness of ignorance, and it is the darkness of silence and secrecy. Now the Râkshasas are shown in almost every case to be Yogis, pious Saddhus and Initiates, a rather unusual occupation for demons. The meaning then is that while we have power to dispel the darkness of ignorance, “ devour it,” we have to preserve the sacred truth from profanation. “ Brahmâ is for the Brahmins alone,” says that proud caste. The moral of the fable is evident.

† The gradual evolution of man in the Secret Doctrine shows that all the later (to the profane the earliest) Races have their physical origin in the early Fourth Race. But it is the sub-race, which preceded the one that separated sexually, that is to be

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(human race), and became oviparous. The emanations that came out of their bodies during the seasons of procreation were ovulary ; the small spheroidal nuclei developing into a large soft, egg-like vehicle, gradually hardened, when, after a period of gestation, it broke and the young human animal issued from it unaided, as the fowls do in our race.”

This must seem to the reader ludicrously absurd. Nevertheless, it is

strictly on the lines of evolutionary analogy, which science perceives in the development of the living animal species. First the moneron-like procreation by self-division ( vide Hæckel ) ; then, after a few stages, the oviparous, as in the case of the reptiles, which are followed by the birds ; then, finally, the mammals with their ovoviviparous modes of producing their young ones.

If the term ovoviviparous is applied to some fish and reptiles, which hatch their eggs within their bodies, why should it not be applied to female mammalians, including woman ? The ovule, in which, after impregnation, the development of the foetus takes place, is an egg.

At all events, this conception is more philosophical than that of Eve with a suddenly created placenta giving birth to Cain, because of the Apple, when even the marsupial, the earliest of mammals, is not placental yet.

Moreover, the progressive order of the methods of reproduction, as unveiled by science, is a brilliant confirmation of esoteric Ethnology. It is only necessary to tabulate the data in order to prove our assertion. (Cf. especially Schmidt’s “ Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism,” p. 39, et. seq., and Laing’s “ A Modern Zoroastrian,” pp. 102-111.)

I. Fission : —

(a) As seen in the division of the homogeneous speck of protoplasm, known as Moneron or Amœba, into two.

(b) As seen in the division of the nucleated cell, in which the cell-nucleus splits into two sub-nuclei, which either develop within the original cell-wall or burst it, and multiply outside as independent entities. ( Cf., the First Root-Race. )

II. Budding : —

A small portion of the parent structure swells out at the surface and finally parts company, growing to the size of the original organism ; e.g., many vegetables, the sea-anemone, etc. ( Cf., the Second Root-Race. ) *

regarded as the spiritual ancestors of our present generations, and especially of the Eastern Aryan Races. Weber’s idea that the Indo-Germanic Race preceded the Aryan Vedic Race is, to the Occultist, grotesque to the last degree.

* Every process of healing and cicatrization in the higher animal groups — even in the case of reproduction of mutilated limbs with the Amphibians — is effected by fission and gemmation of the elementary morphological elements.

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III. Spores : —

A single cell thrown off by the parent organism, which develops into a multicellular organism reproducing the features of the latter, e.g., bacteria and mosses.

IV. Intermediate Hermaphroditism : —

Male and female organs inhering in the same individual ; e.g., the majority of plants, worms, and snails, etc. ; allied to budding. (Cf. Second and early Third Root-Races.)

V. True sexual union : — 

(Cf. later Third Root-Race.)

We now come to an important point with regard to the double evolution of the human race. The Sons of Wisdom, or the spiritual Dhyanis, had become “ intellectual ” through their contact with matter, because they had already reached, during previous cycles of incarnation, that degree of intellect which enabled them to become independent and self-conscious entities, on this plane of matter. They were reborn only by reason of Karmic effects. They entered those who were “ ready,” and became the Arhats, or sages, alluded to above. This needs explanation. It does not mean that Monads entered forms in which other Monads already were. They were “ Essences,” “ Intelligences,” and conscious spirits ; entities seeking to become still more conscious by uniting with more developed matter. Their essence was too pure to be distinct from the universal essence ; but their “ Egos,” or Manas (since they are called Manasaputra, born of “ Mahat,” or Brahmâ) had to pass through earthly human experiences to become all-wise, and be able to start on the returning ascending cycle. The Monads are not discrete principles, limited or conditioned, but rays from that one universal absolute Principle. The entrance into a dark room through the same aperture of one ray of sunlight following another will not constitute two rays, but one ray intensified. It is not in the course of natural law that man should become a perfect septenary being, before the seventh race in the seventh Round. Yet he has all these principles latent in him from his birth. Nor is it part of the evolutionary law that the Fifth principle (Manas), should receive its complete development before the Fifth Round. All such prematurely developed intellects (on the spiritual plane) in our Race are abnormal ; they are those whom we call the “ Fifth-Rounders.” Even in the coming seventh Race, at the close of this Fourth Round, while our four lower principles will be fully developed, that of Manas will be only proportionately so. This limitation, however, refers solely to the spiritual development. The intellectual, on the physical plane, was reached during the Fourth Root-Race. Thus, those who were “ half ready,” who received “ but a spark,” constitute the average humanity which has to acquire its intellectuality during the present Manvantaric evolution,

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after which they will be ready in the next for the full reception of the “ Sons of Wisdom.” While those which “ were not ready ” at all, the latest Monads, which had hardly evolved from their last transitional and lower animal forms at the close of the Third Round, remained the “ narrow-brained ” of the Stanza. This explains the otherwise unaccountable degrees of intellectuality among the various races of men — the savage Bushman and the European — even now. Those tribes of savages, whose reasoning powers are very little above the level of the animals, are not the unjustly disinherited, or the unfavoured, as some may think — nothing of the kind. They are simply those latest arrivals among the human Monads, which were not ready : which have to evolve during the present Round, as on the three remaining globes (hence on four different planes of being) so as to arrive at the level of the average class when they reach the Fifth Round. One remark may prove useful, as food for thought to the student in this connection. The monads of the lowest specimens of humanity (the “ narrow-brained ” * savage South-Sea Islander, the African, the Australian) had no Karma to work out when first born as men, as their more favoured brethren in intelligence had. The former are spinning out Karma only now ; the latter are burdened with past, present, and future Karma. In this respect the poor savage is more fortunate than the greatest genius of civilised countries.

Let us pause before giving any more such strange teachings. Let us try and find out how far any ancient Scriptures, and even Science, permit the possibility of, or even distinctly corroborate, such wild notions as are found in our Anthropogenesis.

Recapitulating that which has been said we find : — That the Secret Doctrine claims for man, (1) a polygenetic origin. (2) A variety of modes of procreation before humanity fell into the ordinary method of generation. (3) That the evolution of animals — of the mammalians at any rate — follows that of man instead of preceding it. And this is diametrically opposed to the now generally accepted theories of evolution and the descent of man from an animal ancestor.

* The term here means neither the dolicho-cephalic nor the brachyo-cephalic, nor yet skulls of a smaller volume, but simply brains devoid of intellect generally. The theory which would judge of the intellectual capacity of a man according to his cranial capacity, seems absurdly illogical to one who has studied the subject. The skulls of the stone period, as well as those of African Races (Bushmen included) show that the first are above rather than below the average of the brain capacity of the modern man, and the skulls of the last are on the whole (as in the case of Papuans and Polynesians generally) larger by one cubic inch than that of the average Frenchman. Again, the cranial capacity of the Parisian of to-day represents an average of 1437 cubic centimètres compared to 1523 of the Auvergnat.

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monogenism or polygenism.

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Let us, by giving to Cæsar what is Cæsar’s, examine, first of all, the chances for the polygenetic theory among the men of science.

Now the majority of the Darwinian evolutionists incline to a poly-genetic explanation of the origin of Races. On this particular question, however, scientists are, as in many other cases, at sixes and sevens ; they agree to disagree.

“ Does man descend from one single couple or from several groups —  monogenism or polygenism ? As far as one can venture to pronounce on what in the absence of witnesses (?) will never be known (?), the second hypothesis is far the most probable.” * Abel Hovelacque, in his “ Science of Language,” comes to a similar conclusion, arguing from the evidence available to a linguistic enquirer.

In an address delivered before the British Association, Professor W. H. Flower remarked on this question : —

“ The view which appears best to accord with what is now known of the characters and distribution of the races of man . . . . is a modification of the monogenistic hypothesis (!). Without entering into the difficult question of the method of man’s first appearance upon the world, we must assume for it a vast antiquity, at all events as measured by any historical standard. If we had any approach to a complete palæontological record, the history of Man could be re-constructed, but nothing of the kind is forthcoming.”

Such an admission must be regarded as fatal to the dogmatism of the physical Evolutionists, and as opening a wide margin to occult speculalations. The opponents of the Darwinian theory were, and still remain, polygenists. Such “ intellectual giants ” as John Crawford and James Hunt discussed the problem and favoured polygenesis, and in their day there was a far stronger feeling in favour of than against this theory. It is only in 1864 that Darwinians began to be wedded to the theory of unity, of which Messrs. Huxley and Lubbock became the first coryphæi.

As regards that other question, of the priority of man to the animals in the order of evolution, the answer is as promptly given. If man is really the Microcosm of the Macrocosm, then the teaching has nothing so very impossible in it, and is but logical. For, man becomes that Macrocosm for the three lower kingdoms under him. Arguing from a physical standpoint, all the lower kingdoms, save the mineral — which is light itself, crystallised and immetallised —  from plants to the creatures which preceded the first mammalians, all have been consolidated in their physical structures by means of the “ cast-off dust ” of those minerals, and the refuse of the human matter, whether from living or dead

* A. Lefèvre, “ Philosophy,” p. 498.

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bodies, on which they fed and which gave them their outer bodies. In his turn, man grew more physical, by re-absorbing into his system that which he had given out, and which became transformed in the living anima crucibles through which it had passed, owing to Nature’s alchemical transmutations. There were animals in those days of which our modern naturalists have never dreamed ; and the stronger became physical material man, the giants of those times, the more powerful were his emanations. Once that Androgyne “ humanity ” separated into sexes, transformed by Nature into child-bearing engines, it ceased to procreate its like through drops of vital energy oozing out of the body. But while man was still ignorant of his procreative powers on the human plane, (before his Fall, as a believer in Adam would say,) all this vital energy, scattered far and wide from him, was used by Nature for the production of the first mammal-animal forms. Evolution is an eternal cycle of becoming, we are taught ; and nature never leaves an atom unused. Moreover, from the beginning of the Round, all in Nature tends to become Man. All the impulses of the dual, centripetal and centrifugal Force are directed towards one point — Man. The progress in the succession of beings, says Agassiz, “ consists in an increasing similarity of the living fauna, and, among the vertebrates, especially, in the increasing resemblance to man. Man is the end towards which all animal creation has tended from the first appearance of the first palæozoic fishes.” *

Just so ; but “ the palæozoic fishes ” being at the lower curve of the arc of the evolution of forms, this Round began with astral man, the reflection of the Dhyan Chohans, called the “ Builders.” Man is the alpha and the omega of objective creation. As said in “ Isis Unveiled,” “ all things had their origin in spirit — evolution having originally begun from above and proceeding downwards, instead of the reverse, as taught in the Darwinian theory.” † Therefore, the tendency spoken of by the eminent naturalist above quoted, is one inherent in every atom. Only, were one to apply it to both sides of the evolution, the observations made would greatly interfere with the modern theory, which has now almost become (Darwinian) law.

But in citing the passage from Agassiz’ work with approval, it must not be understood that the occultists are making any concession to the theory, which derives man from the animal kingdom. The fact that in this Round he preceded the mammalia is obviously not impugned by the consideration that the latter (mammalia) follow in the wake of man.

* “ Principles of Zoology,” p. 206. † Vol. I., p. 154.